Accio "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", or Reducto?

BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW


It is no state secret I am a fan of the Harry Potter series.

I love it. I defend it. I listen to wizard rock, PotterCast and MuggleCast. I quote the books. I soak it in and dive back in over and over and over.

So it should be no surprise to know I was in line at 10 p.m. for the midnight premier of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the sixth movie of the seven-part Harry Potter book series and a toss-up for my favorite of the entire series.

I was anxious for the film after avoiding trailers and in-depth spoilerish news since January or February and had a good feeling about it all when the trailer for "Where the Wild Things Are" showed. I thought, "This is going to be a good night” as I smiled at King Max on the silver screen.

And then, the lights dimmed, a completely ominous and foreboding silence filled the cinema and the crowd erupted into applause followed by a fast “Shh” as Dumbledore escorts a bloodied Harry out of the Ministry of Magic after fighting Voldemort in “Order of the Phoenix”. Then, the familiar Warner-Brothers and Harry Potter logos followed by Death Eaters streaking across London and into Diagon Alley, where windows are ‘sploded, Ollivander is kidnapped and a bridge demolished over the River Thames.

We were treated to much laughter (I had tears sometimes) mixed with innuendo, angst, love, hate, history, paranoia, espionage, death and sadness mixed in perfectly well together on top of what was probably the best performances yet from many of the Potter actors and a beautifully filmed movie to boot late into the wee hours of the morning.

This is especially so of Michael Gambon, who IS Dumbledore in this film and has never given a better performance in the series as he did in HBP, and also Tom Felton’s portrayal of Draco Malfoy.

There were also many nods to the fans from the books – Luna’s lion hat for Quidditch, Arnold the Pygmy Puffskein, “Won Won,” Hermione’s conjured up canaries, Spectrespecs, Ron making it snow at the Gryffindor table, the “My Sweetheart” necklace and Dumbledore stealing the knitting magazine on top of his many quirky comments.

But, at the end of the two hours and 33 minutes of film (not including the 10-15 minutes Death Eaters somehow turned the movie reel off) words could not be formed ... I was utterly and entirely speechless.
The only problem is I did not know if this was a good or a bad thing.

I could not get to sleep until past 5 a.m., what with texting back and forth with some friends here and there and just laying there in my Hut contemplating the movie.

I forced myself not to form an opinion until I went to see it again, but in the back of my head I knew what was throwing me off.

You see, I think I did not want to admit it, but I was disappointed that first go around.

Hear me out though.

The disappointment really stems from the last little bit of the movie (the BIG part of the movie) with the real Slughorn memory, the Cave, the Astronomy Tower and ... Bellatrix Lestrange lighting Hagrid's (somehow Hagrid and Fang-less) Hut on fire?

While it was cinematically better to show Dumbledore and Harry Apparate onto a rock in a rough sea and for the island in the cave to have a blue/white tint rather than green why the HELL did Snape “SHH” a visible and hiding Harry on the Astronomy Tower, where was the “Don’t call me a coward!” scream from Snape and the Funeral?

After some thought, though, several of these issues solved themselves in my head.

We have to be able to SEE Harry on the Astronomy Tower when he and Dumbledore get back (and Apparating in and out works for me) and not have him under the Invisibility Cloak. Panning left to a blank space will not work cinematically.

Snape “Shh”ing him then doing the deed still gives one a sense of conflicting opinions on his intention too, especially when you see his facial expressions throughout the movie in key scenes (Spinner’s End, the Lightening Struck Tower).

There are always going to be changes in a film based upon a book adaptation. It is unavoidable.

Personally, I was hoping beyond hope to see the U-No-Poo sign and a garden gnome on the Christmas tree.

There are good changes made, like letting Tom Felton actually act as Draco for more than two or three scenes by letting us see him working on the vanishing cabinet and choosing Jim Broadbent to play Slughorn (even though his appearance is totally different from the book but so amazing it does not matter just like Umbridge in OOTP) or having Harry listen in to Snape and Dumbledore’s conversation.

I knew we would not get the First Battle of Hogwarts (though I had forgotten) as they are instead holding out for Deathly Hallows. I knew we would not have Dobby or Kreatcher. And I knew we would have a Jo Rowling approved "attack on the Burrow" which worked to show the random violence of the Death Eaters we learn from newspapers in the book and that nobody was safe

But the Burrow’s location somehow changed from the English countryside to Nebraska?

We get such outstanding set design through the movie and the series but this change really irked me.

Yes, that is nitpicking but it is still one of several legitimate issues.

We get Luna in the lion hat and Quidditch again (THANK YOU!) with the crowd chanting “Weasley! Weasley! Weasley!” but why not “Weasley is our king!” like in the books?

This is where the movies piss people off ... and it’s not the director. It’s the screen writer, Steve Kloves.

He has done a great job and I applaud him for adapting these books to film and, as PotterCast #200 mentioned, this is the best of his adaptations to date. But some of his changes leave me saying “WTF mate?”.

For instance, the opening scenes were outstanding but having Harry show up unannounced to the Weasley’s for the rest of the summer was just, well, stupid and rude.

What, good sir, possesses you to change that up? It’s a sentence, “Oh Harry! We were not expecting you until morning.” as Mrs. Weasley hugs him.

Or Harry using Peruvian Darkness Powder to spy on Draco on the train. Well, actually I guess that fit better as him jumping up on top of a train seat always seemed iffy to me, and the powder use was a nod to the fans.

Originally I was mad Luna found Harry too but thinking back, well, we did get to see her with Spectrespecs on and passing out Quibbler’s. A good nod to the fans, though Tonks should have found him and never called Remus “Sweetheart” at Christmas, though without the First Battle of Hogwarts we would never know they were even slightly.

Here is the kicker though. The change and huge plot hole that almost made me not like the movie.

Where in the bloody hell did Dumbledore tell Harry what he suspected to be the other Horcruxes?

Dumbledore is dead, so unless he left a note for Harry or Harry dives into the pensieve with Hermione’s help how the hell is he supposed to figure it out?

Plus Ginny was the one to hide the Half-Blood Prince’s Potion’s book in the Room of Requirement before kissing Harry and thus him not seeing the diadem. Will Ginny be the one to help Harry find that one and thus give her more of a presence in the movie too? Could be and I supposed that will work out ok, as I do like Ginny’s character.

There was not enough time for all the pensieve scenes but Harry knows nothing now and all it would have taken is two minutes of dialogue with Dumbledore explaining it to Harry.

This is what I think disappoints me with the movie, not a few “minor” changes.

The fear that the Trio will, in essence, be flying completely blind without knowing what to look for outside of the destroyed diary and ring o’ Slytherin (that apparently belonged to Tom Riddle’s MOTHER) because a short explanation with Dumbledore could not be fit in. They had a hard enough time working it out as it is.

As long as they somehow work Dumbledore’s expectations for the rest of the Horcruxes into those movies before the Trio sets out, I will be happy.

Like Harry had to show trust in Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower, I must show trust in Kloves and the filmmakers to bridge this gap (thank you Melissa Anelli on PotterCast for saying you trusted they would, thus turning on the lightbulb in my head). It will just be very hard to shake this plot hole from the back of my mind until proven otherwise.

As a point of reference, I looked up some news articles on Kloves after writing the initial draft of this review and he did have the old memories in the original screenplay apparently. A full explanation as to why director David Yates cut them – which fits – can be read at http://tinyurl.com/nyaues (and furthermore in Leaky’s link to the LA Times).

I must say, while it is perfectly OK to be critical of the writing for theses films, I feel slightly more at ease moving into “Deathly Hallows” or at least about his original vision and intent.

So yes, after my first viewing I was disappointed, but then upon seeing it again I walked out saying, “This is the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ of the Potter films.”

Yeah, I said it.

Because, while everything truly changes in “Goblet of Fire”, it all just went to hell in a handbag in “Half-Blood Prince” and you know what? Putting the funeral on to this would have ruined the mood of impending defeat and the adventure to set out on Dumbledore’s task I felt when the credits rolled.

That can, and will apparently, be done at the start of “Deathly Hallows”.

It is not on a greatness level like “Empire” but it gave me that feeling after it was done. That is the comparison.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” truly is a great film cinematically, acting wise, set design wise and writing wise and, while there are two major disappointments in it for me (arriving at the Weasley’s and the Horcruxes), it is by far the best of the Potter movies to date while setting movie 7.1 and movie 7.2 up perfectly well and I have every intention to see it again and again, and notice even more little things thrown in for the fans.


And now, for a little wizard rock

http://www.last.fm/music/Harry+and+the+Potters/_/Dumbledore



NOTE: Oddly enough, I found while re-reading HBP I was reading Dumbledore as the late Sir Richard Harris instead of Michael Gambon. Never had that happen before I don’t think.

Oddly enough too, while re-reading HBP I felt motivated to rekindle those friendships whose fire has dwindled and throw a log on those who are burning bright still. Thank you Jo Rowling and the Trio for reminding me of the importance of good, close friends.